Next I will show you a great game of tug of war. The noise you hear is Millie’s vocalizations. Her foster parents are very familiar with this sound and we have all concluded that it is not an aggressive sound, but rather just what she does when she is having fun playing. Walter does some vocalizing too, but most of it is Millie.

Just so you don’t think they are going all the time, Walter has proven himself already to be a good sleeper and will even settle down for an afternoon nap. The action can be tiring to all of us at times, and they need to be supervised, especially when in the living room where these videos were shot so they don’t knock over Charlie’s speakers or the pole lamp in the room, but I sure enjoy watching it. Having had just one dog, Nina, for over a decade I missed seeing all the fun action between canine siblings. There will be no shortage of that around here now.

Hi everyone, Millie here to tell you about everything that has been going on around here for the past week. Last Saturday we all went to the regular meet and greet for the rescue I came from, Big Dogs Big Hearts. I thought it was just to see my foster parents, but after saying hello to them I met a cute little boy dog named Walter and we hit it off right away.

Isn’t he a cutie! They say he is a boxer mix and I think his head shows it well. Right away we started playing and having a great time together. A few days later Walter and his foster mommy came to our house to visit. We played outside for a while and then I showed him the house.

Here we are with Walter’s foster mommy. She is very nice.

Walter is only about 6 months old (I will be 1 in just a couple of weeks) and that boy has lots of energy.

Today was two days since Walter and his foster mom came to visit us. This morning mom, dad and I went to a local pet store and Walter was there with his foster mommy too! Next thing I know mom was signing a bunch of forms, we went inside the store and bought some food that isn’t my brand and a new toy. After that we got back in the car to go home and Walter got in the car with us!

When we got home we all went outside and had a huge play session. I like chasing Walter and trying to herd him. Everyone thinks I’m part Australian Cattle dog so I guess I’m just doing what comes naturally. Mom took a lot of videos, but we will show you those some other day.

Walter is a pretty lovable guy and likes to give the peeps lots of kisses just like I do.

It’s fun to gang up on daddy and smother him with kisses.

Walter has some parts that are different than mine. Mom and dad have never had a boy dog before so if there are any secrets to raising a boy puppy please let them know. Mom said that Walter has had his bobblectomy already, whatever that means.

So far we are getting along great! Dad thinks we spend just a little too much time playing bitey face and chasing each other around, but I say you can never play too much.

Everyone thinks that when Walter is full grown he and I will be a similar size. Don’t you just love his one speckled paw? After mom and dad ate lunch we all went upstairs and had a little nap (very little nap). Mom said it was nice to see that little Walter could settle down for a while. Right now we (all four of us) are stretched out on our big bed while I dictate this post to mom.

Earlier tonight I was kind of wondering when Walter was going back home, but then I realized he was home! It might take a little while getting used to having a little brother, but it sure is fun having someone around to play with besides my dad. I just want to say to Walter, “Welcome home Walter, welcome home!”

This week I am continuing my posts on birds in our area and joining Wild Bird Wednesday. This week the series of pictures is a little blast from the past, however you could easily replay this scene today if you wanted to try. Mendon Ponds Park is a treasure where you can find lots of wildlife. It is also where Charlie took the picture of the Bridge at Quaker Pond. There are miles of hiking trails as well and you can go from open field to wooded habitat to open water in minutes.

One of the fun things about the park is that because of regular nature hikes hosted Wild Wings, a not-for-profit educational organization that houses and cares for permanently injured birds of prey housed in the park, the black-capped chickadees in the park are accustomed to being fed by the human visitors. For this reason we usually keep some sunflower seeds with us whenever we visit this park.

On this particular visit we had forgotten the seed in the car and when we were almost back to the car a pair of chickadees began harassing us like a couple of pan handlers for some seed. I quickly ran to the car and retrieved the sunflower seeds so we wouldn’t have any bloodshed on our hands. 😉

It didn’t take long for the chickadees to start visiting Charlies hand. At first they were flying off to eat each seed after their visit but eventually they started stashing them in the bark of nearby trees.

While this was taking place a female white breasted nuthatch watched closely from the tree directly behind Charlie.

She seemed to be getting her courage up and even hung upside down from a small branch…

…before finally taking the plunge.

She was cautious but eventually made her selection.

Once she made that first step she continued to return for more seed.

A great finish to a wonderful day. We never thought we would be able to hand feed a nuthatch! Charlie and I haven’t been back to the park for a while, but we hope to bring Millie to it to enjoy the sights, sounds, wildlife and hiking trails with us soon. We are just waiting for some drier weather.

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Wild Bird Wednesday and will take some time to stop by the blog hop host too. And yes I posted this a little earlier than Wednesday in my time-zone, but that is because the blog hop is hosted in Australia.

Well spring is supposed to have sprung by now, but things are a bit behind schedule from normal. We are just starting to see the bulbs pushing their shoots out of the ground and some of our early flowering trees and shrubs are about to fully open.

The buds on the Cornelian Cherry Dogwood are just starting to push out. If we get some warmer weather soon the tree will be covered in a variety of insects and yellow blossoms. One of the features we love about this tree is that those flower buds turn into fruit that the birds can enjoy.

Our witch hazel has been in bloom for over a month now. I love having a winter flowering shrub in the yard. It is a little ray of sunshine and color among all the snow and clouds. They are fully extended now and when it is warm you can usually find plenty of bees on them.

This is one of the first bulbs that blooms for us. Most of them haven’t opened yet, but this white one was the first one to fully open. They are tiny little flowers and all of our bulbs have divided and spread to make a nice patch. Of course they are in jeopardy of being trampled by a certain “Some Doggy” before they all get the chance to bloom.

Glory of the Snow – in bud

Let’s hope this little guy survives Millie’s zoomies to fully bloom.

As the growing season progresses I hope to update you on what is popping up around our yard so stay tuned.

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If you are in the Rochester, New York area from May 31 – June 2, 2013 please plan on visiting the GVQC quilt show “Magical Threads — Inspired Stitches” where the Blue Moon Magic quilt will be on display along with hundreds of other quilts.

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